Demi-sec What? Champagne brut's effusive cousin. This semi-dry, celebratory sweet Champagne lends a giddy fizz to fabulous food. Produced chiefly from Pinot Noir grapes carefully ripened to a pleasing sweetness on the hillsides of the Champagne region, demi-sec is made in the time-honored way of all great Champagne, fermented for six months, then aged for nine months to five years. Because the fermentation process eats up every ounce of sugar in the wine, Champagne is sweetened after the fact, and demi-sec gets a dose that makes it 3 to 6 percent sweet stuff. (Incidentally, the fermentation process is so powerful it sometimes blows resting bottles apart.) The delirious demi-sec is the perfect ending to a high-spirited feast--or a bang-up way to begin. When? November 02, Chris Freeman, Toppers